A Little Help

I recently applied for a job with a major UK industrial design company and was more than pleased to receive an email to say that I have been selected for interview. What really impressed me was that they had taken the time to breakdown what they were looking for.

An itemised list of what to put in my portfolio, tips on sketches, story boards, drawings to bring along. There was even 2 or 3 links to websites outside of the company for inspiration and the kind of work they are looking to see! Why can't everybody do this, I always panic when it comes to my portfolio, possibly because I neglect it. In my current line of work there is not much that I do that wow's prospective employers but it fulfils a need and is very successful in its sector. Working a 60 hour a week job and balancing this with a social life means the time I can spend on my portfolio is sporadic at best so to be given a "york notes" for the interview was brilliant.

Designs of the Financial Times | Blog | Design Week

Designs of the Financial Times | Blog | Design Week

Solidworks Tutorial Video - Advanced Surfacing

Solidworks Tutorial Video - Sheet Metal Design

Solidworks Tutorial Video - Photoworks Rendering

Cool Watch Design

I found this nice watch concept by Kaja Nosal on designeast a website which showcases eastern european design talent.

The watch inspired by the digits on a digital clock. It’s modules became a base for the bracelet construction. Four LED lit parts act as a display for the watch. With a wide selection of colors gives it nice modern aesthetic.

2010 Rolling Road Show

These posters have been pretty well publisised over the web but I thought they were a very clean and clever piece of graphic design.

Olly Moss is the designer behind the posters who has quite an impressive CV. To check out his work follow the link.

What is Design?

I stumbled upon this video whilst on the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum website over a lunch break. Having visited New York in November last year one of the highlights of my trip was visiting this museum (sounds a bit dull I know), I was astonished at how accessible the design methodology was in relation to the pieces on display something I have always found somewhat lacking in other design museums I have visited. I was also impressed in their commitment to educate their visitors through video interviews with the designers. Their website is definitely worth checking out as it has links to a great exhibition archive and you tube channel of lectures and interviews.

So enough rambling, this video is a talk given by Bill Mogridge entitled 'What is Design?'. It touches on a wide variety of industrial and interactive design topics that are useful.

The video is too large to embed here so please follow the link What is Design?

Bill Moggridge is a British Industrial and Interaction designer who co-founded design firm IDEO in 1991 and is the current director of the Smithsonian Institution's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York. He advocates applying a user-centered design process in product development cycles and also works towards popularizing interaction design as a mainstream discipline. As well as being a Royal Designer for Industry since 1988, he was honored with the lifetime achievement award at the National Design Awards at the White House in 2009.

Dieter Rams - 10 Commandments of Design

The basic ideas, the philosophy of Dieter Rams and his colleagues, are gathered in 10 simple factors. These 10 factors must not be concrete factors, indeed they are not. Besides, the thoughts on the definition of new design develop exactly as the development of culture and techniques. These facts can be put into order as follows:

Good design is innovative!

Good design is not pretending the known but is being innovative through doing progress in functionality. It doesn't seem that the proceeding choices will not end because of the new possibilities that technological development has created.

Good design makes the product useful!

People buy products to use it. There are secondary functions but the primary is the optimization of usage.
br> Good design is aesthetical!

The quality of the aesthetics of a product and thus its value is a property of the completeness of functionality. Because it is certain that it is sinister and weary to use a product that is complex to understand and to use. Leaving everything aside it's very difficult to comment on the quality of aesthetics for two reasons: First of all it's very difficult to define a visual concept with words because every word means something different to every individual. The second reason is the role of familiar and balanced appearance of the visual elements and the balance in details, the quality of aesthetics and the must of visual intuition that comes with the experience necessary to comment reliably.

Good design makes the product understandable!

Design emphasizes the structure of the product. It may even make the product speak out. Ideally the product defines itself and this solves the problem of reading a usage prospectus.

Good design must not be uncomfortable!

Products satisfying a task fulfill the function of a gadget. These are neither decorative objects nor objects of art. That's why design must be neutral. Items must draw back for human to live.

Good design is honest!

Good design doesn't- must not- seem different (more useful, more innovative, more valuable?) than what it really is. It must not deceive either the salesman or the consumer. It must not cause them be deceived.
Good design lives long!

It doesn't have components of fashion for the sake of living long (visually). This is how well designed products differ with a distinct line from trivial products with short lives. Today there is no profit in these products.

Good design is though in detail!
The tidiness and concreteness of design is the sign of the respect to the product, its functions and at the same time the respect to the consumer.

Good design is environmental friendly!

Design must protect the environment and must not damage the sources. Meanwhile something must be done against pollution of the environment not only physically but also visually.

Good design must be 'the least designed' as possible!

It's the way back to plainness and simplicity.

Design Thinking

This article is well worth a read and is certainly a view I agree with. Design Thinking is Killing Creativity. For many designers this will sound very familiar and should spark that little light in your head asking why has design gone this way?

New Pilot Pen Ad

The new pilot pen campaign by Grey is a really nicely executed piece of graphic design which I had to put up.

The ads by 2010 cannes award winning advertising agency grey, from Barcelona, have been widely published featuring the tattoo enhanced LEGO mini-figures. The goal of the campaign was to showcase the superthin lines of pilot's extrafine nibs.

The lego tattoos ads were developed by art director Jose Miguel Tortajada, Oscar Amodia, Dani Páez, copywriters Jürgen Krieger, Joan Mas, Luke Sholer, photographer Gonzalo Puertas,illustrators Diogo Dutra and Malen Feliz.

Useful Links

I stumbled across this list of useful links a couple of months ago and promptly emailed it around the other designers in the office. Some of the links you can give a miss but its incredibly difficult to find anthropometric data on the web, and you can never have too many material selection sites under your belt. I haven't yet had a chance to go through all the links but I am particularly impressed with the Kuler colour selection tools.

This site is probably one of the most powerful tools to have in your armoury as an industrial designer. Product Design Hub has some of the best Solidworks tutorials on the web and the forums are a great place to air new concepts and get feedback from IDer's all over the world. A word to the wise though some of these guys are pretty blunt!

Pioneering Design

This week in celebration of what would have been Sir Misha Black's 100th birthday the ICSID (International Council of Societies of Industrial Design) are honouring him for his contributions to the industrial design community. I'll be honest here, I didn't follow this link because I was interested in the man, in fact I had never heard of him. What drew me in was his 1946 design for an electric bicycle that he unveiled at the 'Britain can make it' exhibition, an invention of his own designed to promote manufacturing in Britain following the Second World War. And this is what reeled me in... You could be forgiven for thinking that this is a perhaps an over styled modern design but if you know your trends then the dynamic fluid curves are unmistakably those of the 40's - 50's, but what it does is display the progressive forward thinking of designers at the time following a period of intense international instability.

Having studied mid-20th century history at school (mainly political) I was interested to read how industrial design played a major role in turning around an economy was flat on its back. In his new exhibition Black included a section called the 'benefits of good design', where he promoted good design as a force for social change.

What interests me most about this article is that as Black was so influential in the rebuilding of a shattered economy through industry it lead me to thinking that as we come out of recession what is the state of British Industrial Design now. As many smaller consultancies and manufacturers were wiped out, what role does Industrial Design play today?

Why would I start a blog?

Having built up a wide range of design experience across a number discipline's and market sectors I have learnt a great deal about the difference between a great concept and a really great product. Though much of this education has come about through experience in the work place and pushing products through to market I owe a lot of my professional design development to the internet and what I consider to be peer assisted learning.

Many of the online resources that I use today I happened to stumble across through following links on other designers blogs and bits and bobs I receive in emails or facebook posts from friends and colleagues. Whilst this is all well and good it can often be difficult to remember which sites are good and which one's just aren't worth wasting your time with. So in a bid to help myself I decided to start a blog to keep a cumulation of useful links and design articles that I find useful and could be of benefit to my peers. As well as this I will be adding in some of my own views and opinions and encourage others to spark a bit of debate about design issues and the community in which we work.